I’m Max, your Sustainability Officer, and I’m responsible for campaigning on key environmental issues of concern to students and supporting the development and promotion of sustainable practices and policy within the Guild and University.
This year I’ve been doing work around COP30, supporting students to get involved with sustainability, attending events and working on various projects. Read on to see what I’ve been up to!
COP30 Policy and Events
I have been working with the University to support their contributions towards COP30, which is took place in Brazil this year. COP30 is the 30th Conference of the Parties, a climate change conference organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This year, in preparation for the conference, the University produced a report called ‘Bridging Research and Policy for Global Climate Action’, including both national and international policy recommendations. As your Sustainability Officer, I contributed towards the ‘Sustainability Education’ section, using my experience and conversations with students to feed into the policy recommendations.
I recently attended the University’s Parliamentary Launch of the report, where I spoke to professionals in the sustainability and policy sectors, answered their questions about the policy recommendations and helped them to understand the student experience.
To link into to COP30, I also hosted a Q&A panel event featuring staff and students where we reflected on the key outcomes and discuss what we would want to see in the future.
Supporting Students with Getting Involved
In collaboration with the University, I have helped to develop the Student Sustainability Hub, a Canvas page which acts as a one-stop-shop for everything students could need to know about sustainability and how to get involved. If you’re a student, you can join the Canvas page and get access to useful information and frequent updates on events, job opportunities, internships and volunteering!
I’m working with the various sustainable-themed societies to help them advertise their events in one place. There are lots of different societies you can join, and follow them on Instagram to see all their events.
Currently I’m helping to plan for Green Week, which will be taking place in spring next year. There are going to be lots of fun events and I can’t wait to tell you all about them, so stay tuned for updates on this in the new year!
In addition to this, over the summer I raised with the University that there were issues around the frequency of the bus services and the overcrowding that sometimes takes place at University bus stops. My feedback and the wider work of the University Travel Team have helped to influence an increase in some bus services like the X21/X22around busier times at the start of the semester!
Attending Events
In October I attended the SUSTAIN 2025 Midlands UnConference, where I spoke to professionals, students, University staff and volunteers from across the Midlands about current sustainability issues. I championed the voice of UoB students and raised relevant issues around the cost of sustainable behaviours, social action and the youth voice. I came away with lots of ideas for things we could do at the Guild and the University, and I’m looking forward to trying to put some of them into action.
Looking Ahead
I’m also working on other various projects related to my manifesto, such as:
If you’ve got any thoughts or questions for me, then please do let me know! You can email me or follow what I’m up to on Instagram.